Chronocidal

Ok, since the VF-0A got re-released (assuming the CF not the Shin) is there any chance of getting a spare set of parts from anywhere? We all know about how the shoulders tended to be made of some type of plastic that likes to disintegrate, but... well, that's only a small part of the problem for me. I noticed the cracking shoulders on mine long ago, and just left it in fighter mode for a long time, but I figured I might take it apart today and see if there's any way to reinforce the thing. Unfortunately.. well.. nothing has outright broken yet.. but after taking it apart, it seems like nearly all of the load bearing joints in this thing are made of the same explodium as the shoulders. On disassembling it, both shoulders, the upper arm twist joints, and both halves of both knees are getting ready to completely shatter. There are cracks running clear across both of the double knee joints (the upper part of the thigh twist joint). On top of this.. the main shoulder hinges are made of this same plastic, and they're showing some nasty stress marks. Over all, the places this plastic is used are numerous: the fast packs, the intake covers, hands, shoulders, main fuselage shoulder plates (including the clips to hold the hip bar in fighter), all three sections of the knee joints, inner section of the backpack, the head mounting plate all use it. Basically any dark grey plastic except the canopy cover seems to be the same brittle plastic. So, I guess I'm wondering two things. 1. Do the re-releases use this same crappy plastic in the same places, or is it higher quality stuff like in the newer v2 VF-1s? 2. What are the odds of being able to get a replacements for both arm and leg assemblies? Because of the way things are glued together and screws are covered, I can't really separate the individual parts that need to be fixed. It basically amounts to replacing the entire arm from the shoulder pivot down, and the entire leg starting at the thigh. My plan was to reinforce things as best I can by taking things apart and super-gluing everything.. but to get where I'd need to put the glue would absolutely destroy the parts.

The black definitely was easier.. for a while I was tempted to just leave the stripes entirely black. The red, not so much, but it worked. The best part of this was learning that it's not too difficult to mask off those individual pieces, since most of them follow natural reference points on the plane. I may sticker up one of the kits I have just to try it (probably Luca, since I really only bought his kit for the ghosts ), but I think in general I'm going to stick with painting those markings on, especially once I start learning how to use my airbrush.

Well, I did figure out what happened with the buffing.. turns out I mixed up two of my paints. The one I used wasn't for buffing after all. Oh well, I like how they turned out from the mixed color. I've gotten to the point in my kit where I need to seriously start considering whatever reinforcement tweaks I may use. I actually am considering buying a few small magnets, depending on how tiny they can get, while still remaining powerful. I've got two spots in mind. The first is a replacement for the tabs I developed on my first Michael valk, or maybe a refinement of them. I liked how well the first ones worked, but they were very rough cuts in the leg panels, and I know I could do better with a bit more planning and measuring. What I might do is try to locate magnets in the same places I added the tabs and slots. They'll have to be very small to fit though. The tabs were located directly above the tabs in the upper leg plates before, and I'm thinking if I removed those tabs entirely, the front pegs might be enough to hold those plates on, but I'm not sure yet. I know there is plenty of room inside the wing glove for a decent sized magnet, so I might just try and fill the leg plates with metal bits. If I can get a strong enough magnet for the wings, it might not actually have to touch directly on the metal. I don't know though.. it will take some testing. The second spot I'm considering is as a replacement for the tab that holds the hips in place. I pulled off the two underside plates where this connection is located, and there might be a way to do it. There are so many redundant pegs inside these plates, I might be able to remove a couple, and still leave enough to hold them on. I've got the spots circled in the pic below. The front spot is actually directly above the connection tab. If I removed the peg and socket there, there would be enough room for a small round magnet I think. I may have to drill out a little bit of the plate behind the tab. The second spot is right where the tab's slot is currently, so the two spots are perfect for locating the magnets. There is less space in the back due to the hip bar joint, but if I remove some of the reinforcement that holds the tab in place in battroid mode, there should be room to lay a magnet right against the inside of the skin. In other news, I finally got the nerve up to start painting the main markings. While the puzzle-piece pattern can be generally annoying, I actually found the panels very useful for finding solid reference points. I took a couple of small liberties with the pattern, partly to make it look a little more streamlined, and partly to simplify how the pattern lines up with the existing panel lines. What I did for the most part was simple masking with scotch tape, and it worked fine when I needed it. Most of what I did was drawn on with a pencil in straight lines, and filled in. I painted the black first, and it went on beautifully, making a very smooth coat. The red though.. frustrated me for a few days, mainly on the wing gloves. The black paint isn't really durable to mask over without peeling it off, so I had to free-hand the red over it after marking the outlines with a very fine mechanical pencil and a ruler. Overall, it came out nicely I think and the red matches the other portions I've painted with it (very dark from the black undercoat, although enough coats will make the same shade on white plastic). It's not perfectly even in some spots, especially the shoulder blocks, but it looks fine for normal viewing distances. Next step will probably be working on coating the rest of the internal structure with gunmetal, and finally assembling the legs. I've held off putting the entire thing together so far to keep from stressing the hip joints, but it will have to happen sooner or later. Edit: Oh, by the way.. after watching a couple episodes of the show for details, I redid the shoulders. Know how the shoulder decals have a red stripe between two black stripes? While the black really is just a pinstripe around the wider red band.. the inner pinstripe shouldn't be there. The inner hexagon should be indented, and that second black stripe would be a shadow. The outer black and inner red stripe should also be about the same size. Also, there is a black stripe on the underside of the wing gloves that I keep seeing, about in the same position as the black portion of the top stripe, without the red piece.

Holy poo. I live about an hour north of Edwards, and maybe 3 from LA... I might have to actually go to this now. And here I was not even knowing when it was. I might have to save a bit of vacation and take that day off... Oy. July 4th weekend too. I'll have to see if I can get my friends back home to join me, since we usually have a bbq on the 4th.

Umm... I hope that's "cm" and not "mm".... or the 1/72 pilots will need to ride on the wings. Absolutely beautiful, I must say. Makes me wish I knew more about building resin kits.

Actually, even with the busy underbelly, that NSAWC camo pattern is solid underneath, so it wouldn't matter too much, and it would make painting the arms and shoulders easy. How you'd divide up the rest of the pattern though, I have no idea. It gets complicated around the tail section and engines.

Okay, after my (very) small bit of experience taking pictures for building up a model, I've realized that my little 6MP HP point-n-shoot isn't cutting it. The macro function is okay, but when you're taking pictures of something less than an inch long, and can't get closer than a foot or more.. yeah. Not working so well. So, I'm weighing my options a bit. I honestly don't know if I would need anything as fancy as a DSLR, and even then, I don't want to spend a ton (under $500 would be great, but I might go over that for a good deal). What I use my camera for now is mainly indoor work (close-ups of models and such), some outdoor photos at things like airshows of stationary aircraft, and the occasional picture or two of the skyline out my front door (desert sunsets and cloud formations make for some great windows wallpaper). Being sealed/weather-resistant shouldn't be too much of a concern. I don't need a ton of fancy effects as long as I can get good pictures in relatively low light, but I know I'd have fun and experiment given the options. Video isn't really a must, but it would also be nice to have, since I don't have anything that will take video currently. Now, I read a review of the Canon EOS Rebel T2i 18MP that recommended it as an ideal full featured camera for a beginner, but it seems a bit fancier and pricier than I'd want to go (or even know how to use), at around $1k with a basic kit lens, plus any accessories. That review though did lead me to a few others, including a Canon XS 10MP package on Amazon for $500 that includes a basic lens, carrying case, spare battery, and memory card. It's obviously older, and not as fancy, but I still think it would have plenty of features to keep me busy. On the other hand, it also led me to a $400 bundle for a Canon Powershot 12MP that includes a case, 8gb card, set of 4 rechargeable batteries, and a mini-tripod. I'm assuming it's not a DSLR, but considering how little I know about what that means, if that camera would do what I want, it might not matter. I do also like the ability to use regular AA batteries if I run out of juice, but I don't know how they would compare to a battery pack in terms of lifetime. Oh, and it does 720p video, and it has an articulated screen as well, which might be handy for some types of aircraft pictures (reaching up for cockpit shots, into engines, etc). Anyway, that Powershot deal is looking nice, but I figured I'd ask here first to see if anyone had any horror stories. Really, I'm a fairly clueless beginner, and the thought of having multiple lenses seems like overkill for me (although it looks like the Powershot might be able to use them? I can't tell). Any recommendations anyone might have for a good beginning camera would be very much appreciated.

I did use superglue, but apparently I got some on the inside of the hole, and it shrank, meaning pushing it onto the hinge spread it again.

After a little bit of experimental paint mixing, I think I'm really happy with how the feet turned out. What I wound up doing was making a blend gunmetal and metallic gold, with a bit of flat black to darken it. The mixture went on very smooth, and gave me a nice semi-gloss metallic look, with a hint of brown to it. It kind of looks like antiqued brass in person. For the insides of the feet, I just mixed a little more flat black with gunmetal, and got a nice dull metallic black. I remember reading about various problems with the decals on the foot cuffs, and how they refused to fit correctly for some people, but I don't remember which half didn't fit. What I did realize while painting them though... Bandai got the heel cuff decals backwards. While the colors are right with the red on top, the decals bend the wrong direction. Looking at the cuffs, the stripes on the toe dip downward at the edges, but the decals for the heel bend upwards. From all the pictures of the anime I have, it looks like the heel strips should curve to match the cuff, and join up into a roughly continuous stripe when the feet are closed, so I painted them that way, except I skipped painting the small tab that overlaps since moving the feet would just rub the paint off there.

I'll have to look that up in the near future... I've got an order planned for a 1/60 TV Roy in the near future, so I'll have to check if HLJ carries that. I'm not against spending any money, but I do want to avoid the more expensive things I could use. So far, I think I've spent maybe $20 in materials that I didn't already have, mainly paints and brushes. Up to now, I've just been keeping by brush wet with water while painting, and it's allowed the paint to flow fairly evenly. My only real problem has been my own impatience, and my tendency to try and keep fiddling with things to make them better. If I just wet the paint down a lot, and let it flow into very thin coats, it comes out extremely smooth. It just takes a while to dry, and takes a lot of coats. After reading through the old kit topics for ideas and reference pictures, I came across a couple of discussions about how to paint the pilot's details since they're so tiny, so a short description of the process I used probably couldn't hurt. The real trick I found to getting the pilot done well was doing things in layers. First thing I did was paint the collar area, since it's the hardest to get to, and any attempt to paint that later would get red everywhere. Next, I think I did all the black on the uniform. If I had thought about it at the time, I would have painted black further up to the neck, but I just left the entire neck area red. Oh well, I'll have to remember that next time. Next I'm pretty sure I did the blue on the lower uniform, just to get it out of the way, including the stripes on the pants molded into the cockpit. Since those areas go under the armpits, I think I may have touched up the black afterwards to make sure I had the right areas colored. After that came the white on the helmet and shoulders, which took a couple of coats to cover the dark plastic. One thing I made sure to add was the white patches under the arms, which Bandai forgot to mold into the pilot. They're supposed to be ribbed areas I think, but I just painted a diagonal down under the arms. The last bits here were just red dots on the chest and shoulders, with small black and yellow dots in the middle for the patches. I forget what order I painted the helmet in, because I'm pretty sure I went back and forth between colors to touch up areas a few times. The order that makes sense to me now is the visor first, followed by the black strip around the back of the head, and blue on the upper front of the helmet, which actually has a thin blue strip that wraps around the head (think I used my smallest brush, but it might've been a toothpick). Final bit was the two red stripes down the front, which I only now realize aren't the right shape, but I'm not worrying about it on this one. In other news, I might have to make one of these in fighter mode only. That arm that broke glued decently enough, but split in a second spot the instant I tried to reassemble it. I've got it re-soaked in glue again, but I doubt that piece will ever be strong enough to bend much. I'm going to have to file down the inside of the hole to make sure it fits over the hinge pin in the elbow.

Well, while this is technically a non-existent aircraft, considering the era it was designed in, I'd think it would use standard military colors for that time period. I don't know the exact shades used, but there are definitely specific grays used for the interiors of navy aircraft. Considering the resemblance, you'd probably do well to look up the standard cockpit shades for things like Tomcats and Hornets. Now, if you really want to make things interesting... you could add some extra bits to the cockpit that aren't there yet... I'm thinking ejection seat handles, canopy rail seals/hooks, etc., things you'd find in an actual cockpit. I don't know how model-like you intend this to be, but it would be fun to add a few details Yamato never put in.

I'm realizing that practice with acrylic paints has been what I needed most, since while they clean up nicely, most of my previous experience was with enamels, which dry much slower. Most of my problems have been coming from trying to even out the paint after the first few brush strokes, only to find the paint had alread started to dry, and the extra brushing was causing clumps. Mostly I just had to learn to be patient, put down one even coat, and let it sit for a good few minutes. After that metallizer failed on the feet, I just stripped it off the best I could, and put them aside for a while to work on the rest of the legs. I've been trying to go as much by the anime as possible in terms of the pattern, looking up the various colored patches that bandai didn't include on the kit. I'm simplifying the colors a bit though, just sticking with a couple consistent colors that I don't have to mix. I think I might redo the kneecaps, after realizing how close the tolerances are between them and the shin plates. If I filed down the lower edges a little, or maybe the upper edges of the shin plates, there would probably be plenty of clearance to keep these from scraping. The legs have been put together and taken apart probably a half dozen times now. While those parts were drying, I decided to see about painting the wing stripes on. I took a few liberties with the stripes, and instead of the lines the decals follow, I just stuck with existing panel lines for the black stripes. Likewise with the grey strips, I pushed them back to the front edge of the control surfaces, which actually looks closer to what the anime has than the kit directions show. The underside stripes went on easily, since they have a nice dividing line marked. I discovered that my red paint sticks much better over a base coat, so I painted the entire tip black, and then added the red on the tip, just dividing the black in half at the inner edge of the light on the tip of the wing. The lights I intended to be slightly transparent over silver, but both my gloss red and the bit of greenish-blue I mixed turned out too thick. They did pick up a bit of metallic sheen to them though, so I'm happy. Again, with the red paint over black, I did the shoulder plate pinstriping, and it turned out okay, but I might redo it more evenly later, or at least even out the rough edges. The red may also need another coat or two here, it seems more dim than the wingtips turned out. The red stripe might look better a bit wider as well, so there is less black showing. Sadly, I've got to wait for one of the elbow joints to harden after gluing it.. I managed to snap one of the hinge loops while trying to move the arm earlier, since I'd forgotten to move half of the joint after painting it, and it stuck. Next up should be the foot assemblies, after I decide what type of paint to try on them.

Oh, sure Bandai.. give the SD version a thigh swivel..

Shhh, they might hear you! Actually, comparing the bit of cad we can see with the YF-19 pics, it's quite different already. And except for where the leading edge of the wing meets the fuselage, it looks extremely close to the Hi-Metal 1/100 (the bandai's leading edge has a steeper slope, and intersects the fuselage beneath the canards, instead of ahead of them).

To be fair.. the YF-19 cad was identical to the final product. Having a full 3D perspective just has a way of making things look better (or worse at times). I do wonder how this mold will look as a VF-19F or S though. I think the nose will look a little better without the canards, but I don't know how those clipped wings will look.

Same, I was really looking forward to a 1/48 kit. Although, I do really appreciate the idea of getting some dedicated fighter kits. There are a ton of custom paintschemes I've wanted to try out on the VF-25, and the transforming kits just aren't practical for that.

Eh, give it time. This'll rival the 1/60 YF-19 thread before you know it, complete with all the battying, anti-battying, and anti-anti-batty battying. I've got high hopes in this one though, if only because it means they might have figured out how to do a slim YF-19 later on.

Ok, now THAT is a monster girl, and quite literally so. Love the dripping ice cream. I still prefer the plain old vintage shark mouth design though. Pasting any kind of art over that is just a waste. Personally, I'm still waiting for a full sized version of the Cathy art that got released with a few limited Ozma kits.

Heh.. figures I'd remember that backwards. It's been far too long since I did any serious model building, if you can't tell.. I'm pretty much re-learning as I go. I did try buffing before it dried too much, but it stayed tacky a long time, and just coated the plastic in fuzz. Probably what I get for brushing instead of spraying. Oh well, back to the drawing board then. I might have to try and see if I can get a good bronze acrylic to try.

Now those turned out nice! They pretty much look painted on.

Now for the two things that gave me numerous fits over the past week.. the tails and crotch plate. I must have painted and stripped the tails and stabs at least a couple dozen times due to the paint getting lumpy on me. Mostly it was because I was just impatient with adding additional coats, and I kept pulling up the previous coat. Lesson learned: paint a coat, and find something else to do for a while. In the end, they turned out okay, but the paint is still a little uneven in those two tail stripes. I might try to redo those with a smaller brush later. Next.. a slight personal rant, so feel free to skip this part. What really tends to bug me above all else about these kits is Bandai's facepalm-worthy decisions for which parts are made in which colors. I don't mind painting a few details a different color, but casting parts an entirely wrong color drives me nutty. I know some concessions are made for the purposes of molding, but really... the big fat blue hinges that wind up on the VF-25G's belly are just dumb looking and, being hinges, probably the most likely pieces to scratch the paint off of on top of that. Maybe the worst of all though.. the crotch plate. I want to smack the guy responsible for that upside the head. The piece is molded in black, and you have to paint the entire thing white, with a bit of black trim. I lost count how many times I tried to paint it evenly (by hand, so yes, it's my own fault). Really, even this wouldn't be so bad, except that in order to get that piece to match, you need to paint it with the most utterly angelic, holy, not-of-this-earth shade of white. I mean, seriously. I could ask the Pope to bless and purify my paint, and it wouldn't match Bandai's plastic. I mean, not even the included foil sticker matches the plastic, and it's actually darker than my white paint! Seriously.. if they're going to give you stickers to make up for pieces being the wrong color, the least they could do is make them the same color as the plastic. My latest work has been with the arms and leg assemblies. For the most part, I'm going with an acrylic gunmetal on the mechanical parts, so we'll see how well it holds up under the rubbing of transformation. For the feet though, I'm trying some enamels instead of acrylics. I have several types of Model Master metallizer that I've used before, want to see what they look like. They're recommended for airbrush only, and they're very thin, but that might be just what I need for these brown feet. So far, I've put a test coat of an anthracite gray over some of the leftover brown parts tree, and it looks like it will give a nice metallic gloss to the plastic without actually covering up the brown color. I'm going to let it dry for a while and then see what happens if I buff it out a little.

I'm not sure if I regret getting my DX Alto and Michael or not.. Bandai just got really sloppy with them. And actually, I'm half expecting that blue tinted Alto to turn into a collectors item due to the lukewarm reception it got. I don't know how sales went in Japan, but I don't think that one's ever been sold out when I looked.

Aside from the wingspan, the plane itself looks to be about the size of an RA-5 Vigilante actually. And it's looking beautiful.

When I first got my VF-25G DX, I looked that that hinge and definitely went ? Here's the thing about those hinges... they're at the end of another hinged plate, both of which move independently. If you don't keep both sides lined up while moving the back plate, it's just asking to snap. Think of it like trying to make a sturdy connection between the middle segments of two of your fingers. Move one finger more than the other, and you put a tremendous amount of stress on the connection. Only potential fix I can see for that problem is replacing those two circular hinges with a single metal bar that runs between them, to make sure those two shoulder plates stay linked.

Next up, time for the head. I didn't do too much of anything special with this, mostly just painting with a very small brush. For the visor, I painted the entire back side a pure silver color, as well painting the place where it mounts, just in case it thinned out a bit as it was drying. For the front.. well, I didn't have any transparent green, so I just dipped my brush in the top of an unmixed bottle of bright green paint. It coated surprisingly well, and left the visor a nice bright green color. I used almost the same method for the front of the sensor on top of the head, first painting a layer of silver, then dabbing a drop of thinned green over it. For the top part of the head, I remembered all the problems mentioned with the white pinstripe decals going directly over the seam, so I thought I might actually use that seam to my advantage. Before putting the head together, I sanded down the edges of the red center piece slightly, at about a 45 degree angle. Once the head was together, I just let white paint run into that crevice, leaving a nice even stripe in the joint once the excess was wiped off. I may redo this piece though, since the black and red paint I used didn't smooth out as nicely as I'd like, and the stripes are a little uneven. Btw, it took a little touching up, but I was able to get the red stripe painted at the base of the head lasers. I think I used a 10/0 brush for it, but it might have been a toothpick.